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Abraham Lincoln 






Colonel H. 0. S. Heistand, 
U. S. Army 



NKW YORK 

PRIVATELY PRINTED 

1909 



Abr^ihani Lincoln 



THE ENTIRE EDITION OF THIS BOOK 
IS LIMITED TO 150 COPIES. 



Abraham Lincoln 



BY 



Colonel H. O. S. Heistand, 
U. S. Army 



Being an Address Delivered Before 

the Men's League of the 

Broadway Tabernacle, 

February 13, 1908 



NEW YORK 

PRIVATELY PRINTED 

1909 







s 



Abraham Lincoln 



Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: — 

It is extremely gratifying to have 
this opportunity again to meet 
with the Men's League of the 
Broadway Tabernacle. I thank 
you for the honor of being your 
guest to-night. 

I esteem it an exceptional privi- 
lege and indeed a pleasure to con- 
tribute, in a manner never so 
modest, to a fitting observ^ation of 
the anniversary of the birth of the 
great mart^^red President, Abra- 
ham Lincoln. I confess, though. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



that his character is to me so 
grand, his Hfe so inspiring, that it 
is difficult in reviewing it to be 
dispassionate or to conceal my 
emotion. 

We are not, as a nation, hero 
worshippers. Monuments of en- 
during stone and bronze might 
w4th justice and propriety rise in 
our land to commemorate deeds of 
heroism and noble sacrifice which 
hold the memory but for a day and 
then pass on like the rippling waters 
of the brook to be lost in the sea 
of cumulative greatness. It does 
us good, therefore, to return to the 
shrines we have erected and dedi- 
cate ourselves anew to the memorj^ 
of those w^ho created and preserved 
the blessings of government that 
we enjoy. That is why we are here 
to-night. But aside from the mater- 
ial monuments which have been 
raised up to perpetuate before 
mortal eyes the form and features 
6 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



of Abraham Lincoln, he has in 
the everlasting love and affection 
of his people a monument yet more 
enduring than those of stone and 
bronze. In every American heart 
there is a shrine to his memor^^ and 
to him there is erected a new 
monument in every birth of an 
American child. 

His historv^ is so well known that 
it is not necessary for me to dwell 
at length upon the early struggles 
and poverty which beset the rise 
to fame of this great man : 

"Who mounted the ladder of fame so high, 
He stepped from the last rung to the sky." 

But to refresh your memory, 1 must 
ask you to accompany me with 
him for a few moments, along the 
pathway of his early life. To 
appreciate character one must take 
a glimpse at the environment amid 
which it w^as formed. A resolute 
nature can overcome enormous 
difficulties ; and when great achieve- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



ment results it is a stimulant in the 
battle of life to study the character 
of the individual and to analyze 
the causes of greatness. I wish 
more attention were given in our 
schools to the stud3^ of the lives and 
characters of our great men and 
women, and that our daily press 
would substitute for chronicles of 
vice and crime, those of virtue and 
morals ; and I believe they will do 
so just as soon as the public indi- 
cates that it wants that kind of 
news. It is not sufficient simply to 
condemn unwholesome journal- 
ism : — Refuse to buy such papers ; 
cease to read their nauseating news, 
and they will cease to thrive. 

It was ninety-nine years ago 
yesterday, February 12, 1809, in 
the wild woods of unexplored 
Kentucky, that the babe, Abra- 
ham Lincoln was born. 

The influence he ^vas to exert on 
the condition of our society and on 
9 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



the destiny of our nation could not 
then have been conjectured by the 
wisest soothsayer, nor have been 
conceived by the most romantic 
dreamer. Had the pretensions of 
astrologers been founded upon 
scientific truth, great Nostradamus 
himself w^ould have done well to 
read aright the stars that himg 
over the log cabin that marked the 
initial point of the rugged road 
over ^which its occupant w^as to 
pass to the White House. 

The first twenty years of his life 
were spent among most wonder- 
fully primitive surroundings. The 
country about him is wild and un- 
cultivated save for small scattered 
patches from which the few settlers 
coax a scanty living. The homes 
are wretched log cabins, for the 
most part w^ithout floors, doors, 
windows, or chimnej-s. Not infre- 
quently are found on one side the 
few domestic animals housed ; on 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



the other side the parlor, dining 
room, bed-room, and kitchen, — all 
in one. A rough table and some 
rude stools and benches constitute 
the furniture ; for kitchen utensils a 
few earthen vessels and some 
pewter pots and pans. The cloth- 
ing is coarse and unsightly, made 
almost exclusively from the skins 
and furs of wnld animals and 
fashioned by unskilled hands. 
Their food is of the commonest and 
little better than that of the cattle. 
Potatoes, even, are said to have 
been a delicacy reserved for special 
occasions and onl3^ to be had by 
the few well-to-do. The character 
of the people is in harmon^^ with 
their surroundings ; rough in man- 
ner, coarse in habits, drinking and 
fighting common even among the 
women. Of education there was 
little that could pass by that name. 
The men and women able to read 
and write are very few ; books are 

10 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



fewer ; Churches and schools fewer 
still. The scenes of want and 
squalor to be found in our familiar 
*' Ghetto" offer nothing more for- 
bidding. 

It was amid such surroundings 
that Abraham Lincoln came into 
life and that his character be- 
gan to form. His father, Thomas 
Lincoln, was a back-woodsman in 
the fullest sense of the word ; un- 
mannered, unlettered ; a carpenter 
by trade, but thriftless and shift- 
less. His mother, Nancy Hanks, 
was a feeble and delicate creature 
who under more favorable condi- 
tions and environment might have 
become a woman of considerable 
strength of character. All ac- 
counts represent her as a handsome 
young woman of 23 ; of appear- 
ance and intellect superior to her 
lowlj' surroundings. She was 
among the few who could read and 
write, — a remarkable accomplish- 
11 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



ment in her circle; and she soon 
taught her husband to form the 
letters of his name. He had no such 
wedding portion to bestow upon 
his bride. Slowly this delicate 
woman pined away and finally 
died before her little Abe had reach- 
ed his ninth 3^ear ; she had , however, 
taught him his letters and a little 
spelling. It was the germ of learn- 
ing that grew into an education 
founded upon fundamentals; an 
education broader than that to be 
acquired at any university — the 
rich full education that comes with 
earnest and persistent effort guided 
by native intelligence, and actuated 
b3^ a ceaseless search for the truth. 
Of his mother he said; ''All that 
I am, and all that I hope to be, I 
owe to m3^ mother." To his last 
day the memory' of his mother was 
one of the few joys that brightened 
for a few moments at a time his 
melancholy life. 

12 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



Next we see the family, forced by 
the direst necessity, moving from 
Kentucky to Indiana, to environ- 
ments which were bad enough yet 
not quite so primitive. Still the 
struggle for existence occupied the 
foremost thought ; but the chances 
to acquire a little education were a 
trifle better. Young Lincoln seized 
upon the first opportunity and 
obtained his first schooling, and 
the last in his entire life; seven 
months in all. The school was 
located in a log cabin over four 
miles from his home; to it he 
trudged in all sorts of w^eather 
when his father could spare him 
from the work of farming and help- 
ing in the carpenter shop. At that 
early date his mind exhibited a 
hunger and thirst for learning and 
knowledge so ardent that all his 
spare time was spent w^ith the few 
books at his disposal. He was 
called lazy and even suspected of 
13 



ABRAHAxM LINCOLN 



mental aberration when seen to lie 
flat under the trees or before the 
chimney piece poring over his 
studies. So poor was he that for 
want of slate or paper he used the 
broad surface of a wooden shovel 
upon which to practice writing and 
to do what little figuring was 
necessary or to note down his 
thoughts or impressions; thus he 
continued imperturbed by taunts 
and jeers. His mind had awak- 
ened ; he had seen the first light; 
the darkness of ignorance was dis- 
solving; his soul had received its 
first bath in the roseate light of the 
intellectual dawn; the light of hope 
buoyed him tipward ; ambition, 
possibly aimless then, led him on- 
w^ard. Thus began to form and 
build the great original character 
that was to bring the strength of 
his thought and the power of his 
intellect to the correct and just solu- 
tion of the greatest problems that 
14 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



were ever to beset the government. 

He was gigantic in stature and 
endowed with great physical 
strength and courage. One of his 
employers said : '* He could sink an 
axe farther into wood than any 
man I ever saw." It was strength 
like this, with a brain to direct it, 
that made him a natural leader 
among men in that country and in 
that time. 

When about of age, the family, 
for the second time, moved to a 
new home; this time in Illinois. 
Conditions here were still a little 
more favorable than they were in 
Indiana, and afforded young Lin- 
coln opportunities for self-education 
which the home he had just left 
denied him. One of these was 
destined to bring him to the turn- 
ing point in his life; to a realiza- 
tion of his life's mission. 

In 1828 he made a boat trip to 
New Orleans ; again in the Spring 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



of 1831 he hired out to help take a 
flat-boat load of produce to that 
city. It was upon this trip that it 
is said the scenes of the slave mart 
brought to him a realization of the 
horrors of slavery and its curse to 
his country. There for the first 
time he saw" that of which he had 
read, — men, women and children 
sold at auction like so many 
animals — husband taken from w^ife 
— children torn from their mother's 
breast, — brothers and sisters part- 
ed, — amid pitiful cries and rending 
shrieks that awakened no pangs of 
pity in their merciless masters, nor 
softened the hearts of their pur- 
chasers. About him he heard the 
crack of the whip and the jeers and 
curses of the slave drivers. Upon 
the revolting scene he gazed with 
abhorrence until his conscience 
rebelled and with all the force of 
his earnest nature, he is said to 
have exclaimed: "By the Eternal 
16 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



God, if ever I get a chance to hit 
that thing I '11 hit it hard." 

We all know how hard he hit 
that institution and it is to their 
everlasting credit that those who 
defended it then now join with 
enthusiasm in the rejoicing at its 
destruction; and the States that 
withered in the coils of the curse 
have shaken off their lethargy and 
joined in the grand harmonious 
march of the republic in its com- 
mercial and industrious progress, 
united under one flag in whose 
shadow American subjects take 
shelter, from the poles to the 
equator and half a world awa^^ 

At the age of fifty-two we" find 
him following a life quite obscure 
but for a single uneventful term in 
the National Congress. Though 
obscure had been his life, into it 
there had come the varied experi- 
ence of woodsman, hunter, farmer, 
freighter, soldier, peddler, mer- 
17 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



chant, lawj^er and politician. And 
from this obscurity, at a stroke of 
the clock of God, his lofty figure 
emerges and he steps forth to en- 
counter the eyes of the nation. It 
was a great occasion in the affairs 
of men. It called for a great 
character. God seems always 
to raise up great persons for great 
emergencies; the Israelities had 
their Moses; the French their Joan 
of Arc; the Colonists had their 
Washington. Now arrived a sit- 
uation, long seen in its approach, 
but from which individuals and the 
nation turned without courage to 
confront. For years his logical 
mind had compassed the necessity 
for the abolition of slavery if the 
government of the United States 
was to continue. Lincoln was not 
the first to see the gathering storm. 
Others too before him had seen the 
calamity that threatened the na- 
tion. They all hoped for a Moses 

18 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



to lead them through the political 
wilderness. Patrick Henry had 
said of slaver^^ that it "Gives a 
gloomy prospect to the future." 
George Mason of Virginia in a 
letter to the legislature of his state 
wrote of it, saying: "The laws of 
impartial Providence ma^^ avenge 
our injustice upon our posterity." 
President Madison said: "Where 
slavery exists, there the republican 
theory becames fallacious." 

With such conviction, none of 
them had the courage to act; 
upon Lincoln came the same 
conviction and he did act. While 
others dared not risk their political 
future he dared to risk his life. 

Unshrinkingl3^ he came to his task 
with "Charit^^ toward all, with 
malice toward none." If it can be 
said that cheerfulness ever came 
into his nature, he came to this 
great work cheerfully, displaying a 
sublime trust in Almighty God and 
19 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



in the people. If God ever de- 
scends to take part in the affairs: 
of men, there is reason to believe: 
that Abraham Lincoln was- 
lifted up and divinely inspired 
with wisdom and endowed w4th 
the genius successfully to carry 
out the divine law of the equality 
of man, and to preserve to his 
people the only government on 
earth ever conceived and erected 
upon that theory. 

There are times when nations, 
like individuals, perform master 
strokes of genius. Such a one was 
performed when our nation at the 
most critical period of its history 
dared to choose an unknown and 
obscure person to conduct its 
affairs. I can find in all the histor^^ of 
mortal man no like example wherein 
a person born to such low^ly estate, 
reared in such primitive environ- 
ment, denied the advantages of 
scholastic training, grew to such 
. 20 



ABRAIIAAI LINCOLN 



lofty estate and discharged its 
duties and revSp(3nsibilities with 
such skill and success. Nature had 
even burdened him with the dis- 
advantages of uncomely face and 
figure and had denied to him the 
ordinary graces of social inter- 
course. 

Col. Alexander AlcClure of Phil- 
adelphia said of him: "My first 
sight of him Avas a deep disappoint- 
ment. Before me stood a middle- 
aged man, tall, gaunt, ungainly, 
homely, ill-clad, — slouchy panta- 
loons, vest held shut by a button 
or two, tightW fitting sleeves to 
exaggerate his long, bony arms, all 
supplemented b^^ an aw^kwardness 
that was uncommon among men 
of intelligence. I confess that m3^ 
heart sank within me as I remem- 
bered that this was the man 
chosen by a great nation to become 
its ruler in the gravest period of 
its history." 

21 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



What was it then that gave him 
his power over men, and his dis- 
cernment of affairs ? Wherein Hes 
the secret of this remarkable career ? 
A careful study of his life leaves 
with me the impression that his 
strength arose from the simple 
patience of his nature and his 
fundamental love of right. 

He brought to his high office the 
childlike honesty of primitive man. 
He was scrupulousl3^ honest. When 
he w^as a grocery clerk in New 
Salem, 111., it is related of him that 
by error he took a few cents too 
much from a customer. He did not 
vseek to quiet his conscience by 
mentally muttering "never mind 
such little things." No, no! On 
the contrary, that evening after 
closing the store he walked three 
miles to return that small sum. 
Upon another occasion in the dusk 
of the evening he weighed out as 
he supposed a half pound of tea for 
. 22 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



a customer. He left the weights in 
the scales, and the next morning 
upon opening the store when he 
had the benefit of the full light of 
da3% he found that he had given 
short weight. Upon discovering 
his mistake, he closed the store and 
hurried to deliver the remainder of 
the tea. These acts as well as his 
thorough honest}^ in all other re- 
spects gained for him the now 
famous title of " Honest Abe." 

Than it he has gained none more 
distinguished and none more envi- 
able. 

His heart and brain blended in 
comprehensive response to human 
sorrow. 

Mr. L. E. Chittenden, Lincoln's 
Register of the Treasur3% tells of 
the President's interest in a soldier 
by the name of William Scott. 
This soldier from sheer exhaustion 
had fallen asleep at his post when 
on guard ; he had been tried by 
23 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



court-martial, found guilty, and 
sentenced to the severe penalty of 
death prescribed by the Articles of 
War for that offense. Young Scott 
wras a Green Mountain boy from 
Vermont; like all farmer boys he 
was accustomed to his regular rest. 
Interference with it caused him 
great suffering. Out of kindness 
one day he had taken the place of a 
comrade on guard; the following 
day he went on guard in his turn. 
When night came on, Nature was 
too strong to be baffled hj the 
boy's will, and despite all his 
efforts he fell asleep on post. In 
this condition he was found by the 
officer of the day. As I have said 
he was tried and condemned to 
death ; he was to be shot at day- 
light the following morning. His 
comrades were deeply distressed ; 
they felt the injustice as well as 
their helplessness. They knew not 
what to do, and in their dilemma 
24 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



appealed to their statesman, Mr. 
Chittenden. Mr. Chittenden went 
direct to the President and told the 
pitiful story. Mr. Lincoln listened 
with his customary patience and 
that day himself drove several 
miles into the country to investi- 
gate the case. He had a long talk 
with Scott and at the close he 
released him from arrest and re- 
stored him to duty. The boy 
sobbed his obhgations and begged 
that he might be permitted to re- 
pay the kindness. The President 
said "The only pay is to do your 
duty." This he did, for the soldier 
was afterward killed in the Penin- 
sula campaign. 

So frequently did Mr. Lincoln's 
intense love for his fellow man lead 
him to disapprove court-martial 
proceedings, especially those in- 
volving the death penalty, that he 
was accused of seriously interfering 
with the discipline of the army. 
25 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



Upon one occasion when the Judge 
Advocate, General Holt, was very 
insistent, the President exclaimed, 
"Holt, were you ever in battle?" 
''No." ''Did Stanton ever get to 
the front to be shot at ? " "I think 
not." "Well," said the President, 
"I did, in the Black Hawk War, 
and I know what it means. Turn 
these men loose." 

Though not a member of any 
church, he had the most sublime 
faith in God. General Sickles tells 
of having visited the Wliite House 
a few days after the great battle of 
Gettysburg. There he found Mr. 
Lincoln thoughtful and melancholy 
as usual. The general, desirous of 
expressing some word of sympathy 
he felt for the President in the 
moments of his great responsibili- 
ties, said, "Mr. President, the 
anxieties of your office must be ver^^ 
burdensome; you must have felt 
great concern during the fearful 
26 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



battle at Gettysburg which has just 
closed." Mr. Lincoln replied: 
"General, I had no concern for the 
battle of Gett^^sburg. I knew that 
it would be all right. I had not 
the slightest doubt of the outcome 
of that struggle." 

General Sickles expressed surprise 
at such a calm statement from the 
President, when he knew that all 
the generals of the entire army and 
the country at large had been so 
anxious. Then the President said : 
"General, there are many who 
would scoff if I were to tell them 
why I had no anxiety about the 
Battle of Getty sburg, but I do not 
mind telling you that I went alone 
into my closet and went down 
upon my knees and prayed to 
Almighty God with greater fervor 
than ever before I had felt, and 
asked that we might be successful 
in the great struggle which I be- 
lieved to be the decisive battle of 
27 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



the war; before I arose from 1113^ 
knees I felt a sensation which con- 
vej^ed to me the sweet assurance 
that my pra^^er would be answered. 
I arose from m3^ knees with a light 
heart and from that moment on I 
felt no anxietA^" 

Likewise he had an enduring faith 
in the people. 

As everyone knows, one of the 
great problems in war is that of 
funds to defray its abnormal ex- 
pense. When during the War of 
the Rebellion Congress enacted a 
law creating legal tender, the 
measure caused great discussion. 
Many bankers and financiers 
opposed it. Mr. Chase could find 
no grounds upon which to defend 
the Government's position except 
that of necessity. Mr. Lincoln 
listened patiently to Cabinet Min- 
isters, Congressmen and financiers. 
He was greatly distressed and said 
he was worse off than St. Paul, 
28 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



who was in a strait betwixt two, 
but that he was in a strait betwixt 
twenty, and they all bankers and 
financiers. Finally he signed the 
act saying: ''We will wait for the 
country districts — wait to hear 
from the people." 

He was deepl3^ affectionate and 
emotional. It is related of him that 
one da3^ in May in 1863, wdiile the 
war was raging between North and 
South, President Lincoln paid a 
visit to one of the military hos- 
pitals. He had spoken many cheer- 
ing words of S3^mpathy to the 
wounded as he proceeded through 
the various w^ards, and at last he 
was at the bedside of a young 
soldier — a mere lad, who la^' there 
mortally wounded. Taking the 
dying boy's thin, white hands in 
his own, the President said in 
tender tone : 

"Well, my poor boy, what can I 
do for you ?" 

29 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



The soldier looked up into the 
President's kindly face and asked 
"Won't 3^ou write to my mother 
for me ?" 

"That I will," answered Mr. 
Lincoln, and calling for stationery 
he seated himself b^^ the side of the 
bed and wrote from the boy's 
dictation. It was a long letter, 
but the President betraj^ed no sign 
of weariness. When it was finish- 
ed, he arose, sa3ang: 

" 1 will post this as soon as I get 
back to my office. Now is there 
anything else I can do for 3'ou ? " 

The boy looked up appealingly to 
the President. "Won't you stay 
with me?" he asked, "I want toi 
hold your hand." 

Mr. Lincoln at once perceived the 
lad's meaning. The appeal was 
too strong for him ; so hesatdow^n ■ 
by his side and as patiently as 
though he had been the bo^^'s 
father. When the end came, he 
. 30 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



bent over and folded the thin hands 
over hivS breast. As he did so tears 
welled in his eyes, and when, soon 
afterward, he left the hospital, they 
were still coursing down his hol- 
low cheeks. 

The hardship of his early life en- 
abled him to overcome so man^^ 
difficulties that he had supreme 
confidence in himself. In his w4der 
sphere this trait followed him, and 
while he constantly sought advice 
of those about him he grew to have 
the courage of his own judgment. 

When Secretary Chase resigned 
from the Treasury, it was extreme- 
ly difficult to find a suitable suc- 
cessor. Finally the President set- 
tled upon Senator William Pitt 
Fessenden for the position and sent 
his name to the Senate without 
consulting him. Mr. Fessenden de- 
murred, saying, '*I cannot accept ; 
I will not accept this appointment 
for which I have no qualification. 

31 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



Mr. President, you ought not to 
ask me to do it. Pray relieve me, 
I repeat I cannot accept it." 

Mr. Chittenden, a witness to the 
interview, tells us that the Presi- 
dent arose from his chair. His voice 
was serious and emphatic, but 
without any assumption of solem- 
nity, he said : 

"Fessenden, since I have occupied 
this place every appointment I have 
made upon my own judgment has 
proven to be a good one. I do not 
say the best that could have been 
made, but good enough to answer 
the purpose. The only mistakes I 
have made have been in cases 
where I have allowed my judgment 
to be overruled by that of others." 

He was the very genius of good 
sense. He was with the people and 
never above them. He was wont to 
say: ''God must love the plain 
people, for He made so many of 
them." He brought to every ques- 
•32 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



tion the test of every clay thought 
and experience, and reduced it to 
the simple test: "Is it right be- 
tween man and man and right in 
the sight of God?" That once 
determined in his mind there 
was no delay, and he had the moral 
courage to act. Then even in the 
midst of bitter criticism, he would 
calmly wait the safe appeal to the 
Tribunal of Time. 

His mind was luminous in practi- 
cal foresight. He saw men and 
measures in their true relation with 
almost prophetic instinct. Noth- 
ing was too little to engross his 
attention if it involved a principle 
of right or justice. His whole life 
story teems with incidents of little 
acts and deeds of love and kindness, 
of care and attention, of constant 
alleviation of sorrow^ and misery, 
of efforts to adjust disputes and 
misunderstandings. Volumes could 
be written of instances of his kind- 
33 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



ness to the soldiers and sailors 
whom he visited so frequent^ in 
their hospitals. 

But in the entire story of his life 
and his character, there stands out 
above all, his lack of haste — per- 
fect patience — the trait patiently 
to endure the criticism which befell 
him and calmly to await the final 
judgment of conservative thought. 
It seems to me that it was that 
above all that enabled him to 
emerge from the jeers and the 
passionate denunciation of hatred 
and vilification which befell him, and 
enabled him to rise above it all and 
inspire in the hearts of even his 
enemies, love and devotion almost 
to the degree of veneration. 

Lincoln was a citizen of Illinois 
w^hen he became President. But 
his greatness exceeded that com- 
passed by mere State boundaries. 
Such a character is among the 
precious treasures of the nation. 
34 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



No section can lay exclusive claim 
to him. His father's ancestors 
came from New England, those of 
his mother from the South. In his 
veins coursed the blood of Puritan 
and Cavalier mingled with that of 
the Quaker and Pioneer, — a com- 
posite in which every section of our 
land contributed and which in turn 
shed its radiance and its brilliance 
upon all without partiality or 
favor. 

As his noble spirit departed from 
his homely body to enter into the 
perfect beauty of the enduring 
heavens, Stanton, the great War 
Secretar}^ usuall^^ so unemotional, 
sobbed: "Now he belongs to the 
ages." Abraham Lincoln was 
dead. The victim of a mad assas- 
sin, his life's labor was done. It 
had restored a tottering Union, and 
his tragic death had cemented the 
foundations of the Republic. His 
example is ever with us to guide in 
35 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



the solution of the great problems 
which confront us ; and to inspire 
in us a deeper love for our country, 
and for the flag he gave his life to 
preserve, and which in the moment 
of death wreaked vengeance upon 
his sla3^er. 

To questions that may divide 
our people, let us bring his wisdom 
when he said: ''Let us have in 
essentials, Unitj^; in non-essentials, 
Liberty; in all things, Charity" 
and before acting on great public 
questions, ask ourselves "What 
would Lincoln do ? " 

I could wish nothing better than 
to see our people manifest as a 
National trait, the characteristic 
virtue of Abraham Lincoln, — 
Patience, perfect Patience. 

The most noticeable trait of 
American character is haste; in 
business matters, in household 
affairs, in social intercourse, one is 
constantly in the midst of mad and 
36 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



frantic haste. Men sit at their 
desks with the ticker tape in one 
hand and the telephone receiver in 
the other. Our social life has ceased 
to recreate. 

Great public questions arise and 
the masses, with incomplete or im- 
perfect information, hear the 
harangue of an irresponsible and 
unscrupulous demagoo-ue, and like 
as not without further question 
clamor for immediate administrav 
tive or legislative action. 

You will recall the efforts of Pre- 
sident McKinley to avert, or at 
least delay, the war with Spain. 
If war had to come, time was 
necessar)^ to enable the government 
to make preparations for which 
there had been no previous appro- 
priations. With thoughtless im- 
patience the country rang from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific with the cry, 
" On to Cuba." To have respond- 
ed at once, it is known, would have 
37 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



been to invite disaster from a power 
even so impotent as Spain. 

For years those who have had 
least information about the PhiHp- 
pines and FiUpinos and their con- 
dition, have been clamoring impa- 
tiently for the inauguration of a 
political regime in the archipelago 
for which those best informed be- 
lieve its inhabitants will not be 
prepared for at least half a century, 
I only mention these instances of 
public impatience as exarnples of 
many which must be familiar to 
you all. 

With such clamor for haste in 
governmental affairs,there lurks the 
greatest danger of conflict with 
other governments that threaten 
to disturb the peace of the world. 
Impatience is the force that has so 
often disturbed internal affairs and 
prevented the peaceful settlement 
of international differences. It is 
the altar upon which have been 

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ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



sacrificed the lives of countless 
thousands of patriots. Let Pati- 
ence do its perfect work. 

We have grown to be so great ; 
our interests so varied, our in- 
fluence so wade, our population so 
cosmopolitan, that greater neces- 
sity exists now than ever before for 
calm judicial temperament and 
patience in pronouncing judgment 
upon man and measures. I repeat, 
let perfect patience do its w^ork. 

Abraham Lincoln's martyrdom 
will not have been in vain if 
from his grave there spreads 
throughout the land the spirit of 
perfect patience, a love for our fel- 
low-man so strong that brother 
can never rise against brother; 
that class prejudice cannot thrive; 
that class hatred cannot exist, — a 
love of justice and right so widely 
diffused that our heterogeneous 
population w^ill be firml^^ bound to- 
gether in the peaceful submission 
89 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



to the Golden Rule, and in that 
Utopian state, share with the en- 
tire world the priceless blessings of 
peace and prosperity and human 
liberty in the midst of a higher and 
loftier civilization wherein dwells 
no prejudice against race or color. 
Abraham Lincoln's name, the 
s^^mbol of liberty, is written 
high on Freedom's roll of honor, 
never to tarnish. And annually on 
his natal day a grateful posterity 
burnishes to renewed luster the 
crown of glory that decks his 
colossal statue erected on a pede- 
stal of the people's love, to perpet- 
uate forever in the gaze of the 
ages, — one ofearth's noblest, might- 
iest, kingliest. Abraham Lincoln. 



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CONGRESS 




